Not satisfied with the junk he buys on purpose, web engineer Darius Kazemi created a bot that buys random stuff – a paperback book, DVD or CD – from Amazon. The only criteria: a $50 budget and a randomly-generated word from the Wordnik API that the bot uses as search parameters.

Decapitated planarian flatworms can recover their memories along with their heads. Researchers trained the worms to overcome their fear of bright lights and open spaces, then observed how they recall their training while regrowing their heads.

Somewhat related: neuroscientists claim that human head transplants are now possible, if you don’t mind being paralyzed from the neck down.

Taking it one step closer to a Rudy Rucker-inspired era of sentient piezoplastics, scientists have identified the plastisphere: a new ecological community that lives on plastic debris in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Rounding off a great year for the National Security Agency and its unironic love of clip art, The Washington Post has exposed how the NSA is tapping fiber-optic networks under a program codenamed "Upstream", presumably as a play on PRISM’s “downstream” data collection.

Cortex Exoskeleton is a 3D printed cast concept by Jake Evill which could provide lighter, more structured support for mending bones. Each cast is created from a 3D scan of the wearer’s limb and can be removed with a set of integrated fasteners.

Jennifer Lewis and her team of researchers have created the world’s first 3D printed battery, as well as a customized 3D printing nozzle that can create features as small as one micrometre across. The next step: “integrated electronics” that can be used to power medical devices and smart wireless sensors.

Broke P, a.k.a. Peter Sunde of the Pirate Bay, is raising funds for a free, user-friendly cryptomessaging service called Heml.is (hemlis is the Swedish word for ‘secret’).

Earthcode: Martin Howse has high hopes to create a "dirty, irrational computational device". Using organic elements to create a functioning "earth computer", Earthcode’s long-term goal is to create a massive installation for the ages.

A research fellow at Flinders University is working on an open-source project that could lead to a form of localized, DIY internet. Gardner-Stephen’s app, Serval, allows Android phones to create their own mesh networks with WiFi enabling calls, texts and file transfers without being in range of each other.